Frank Lorenzo
(19) North Carolina Tar Heels (-5.5, 139.5) at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
The No. 19 North Carolina Tar Heels (20-9, 10-6 ACC), losers of five of eight, will look to earn back-to-back wins for the first time in a month when they visit the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (12-17, 3-14 ACC) at the McCamish Pavilion tonight (7:00 p.m. Eastern).
After dropping a home game to NC State last Tuesday, North Carolina got back in the win column at Miami on Saturday (73-64). Brice Johnson scored 22 points and added 11 rebounds to lead the Heels, while J.P. Tokoto had ten and ten.
The Tar Heels and Hurricanes were knotted midway through the second half, but UNC didn’t panic.
“We’ve been in that situation before,” Johnson told the school’s official website. “We know we’ve been there. We have to play with composure and do all the little things coach tells us to do.”
Tonight, the Heels will be facing a Georgia Tech team that is also on a slide. The Yellow Jackets have lost three straight and five of their last six. Coincidentally, the current losing streak started in Chapel Hill with an 89-60 blowout at the hands of the Tar Heels.
Tech showed a lot of gumption in its last outing, coming from 23 down at Clemson to force overtime. But the Jackets couldn’t keep the momentum going in the extra frame, falling 70-63.
“It’s difficult to bounce back from that deficit, and our guys showed a lot in terms of doing that,” Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory said after the loss. “Obviously that’s a great character trait. But you’re supposed to have that.”
North Carolina is a 5.5-point road favorite tonight. Georgia Tech is 9-2-1 ATS in its last 12 at home against UNC, and the total has stayed under in four of the last five.
(Photo credit: Thomson20192 (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)
